Albom, Mitch. The Five People you Meet in Heaven. c2003. Fiction
A bitter eighty-three-year-old war veteran who believes his life is meaningless dies while trying to save a little girl's life and finds himself in heaven, where five people from his past--some loved ones, some strangers--explain what his years on Earth really meant, and whether or not he succeeded in saving the child.

Appleman-Jurman. Alicia, My Story. c1988. Biography
Alicia tells of her flight from the Nazis through the fields of Poland, rescuing other Jews, leading them to safe hideouts, and offering them courage and hope.

Bradbury Ray. Martian Chronicles. c1946. Science Fiction
Chronicles the early attempts by humans to colonize an inhabited Mars by transforming the Red planet into a mirror image of the world they left behind.

Greene, Bette. The Summer of My German Soldier. c1973. Fiction
Sheltering an escaped German prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Arkansas.
* A 1973 National Book Award Finalist
* An ALA Notable Book
* A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year

Hart, Moss and Kaufman, George S.You Can't Take It With You. c 1937. Drama, comedy
Amidst a backdrop of confusion, two very different families rediscover the simple joys of life.
*Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 1937.

Hunt, Irene.Across Five Aprils. c1964. Historical Fiction
Young Jethro Creighton grows from a boy to a man when he is left to take care of the family farm in Illinois during the difficult years of the Civil War.
*Newbery Medal/Honor Book

King, Stephan. Carrie. c1995. Horror Fiction
The unnerving story of an unpopular and repressed young girl who uses her supernatural powers of telekinesis to inflict revenge on her classmates.
* An ALA Notable Book

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. c1999. Fiction
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken
*Newbery Medal/Honor 01/17/00

Orczy, Baroness Emmuska. The Scarlet Pimpernel. First published: 1905. Historical Fiction
Sir Percy Blakeney defies the French revolutionaries in order to save innocent men and women from being put to death in the guillotine.

Potok, Chaim. My Name is Asher Lev. c1972. Fiction
The making of a great contemporary painter from the first stirrings of a commanding talent to the triumphant exhibition that wins recognition for his art and marks his final, heartrending estrangement from the world in which he was born.

Smith Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. First published: 1943. Fiction
Young Francie Nolan experiences the problems of growing up in a Brooklyn, New York slum.

Steinbeck, John. The Red Pony. c1965
Fiction
Ownership of a beautiful red pony teaches ten-year-old Jody about life and death.

Stewart, Mary. The Crystal Cave. First published: 1970.
Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Book one of the Arthurian saga, this novel focuses on the early life of Merlin the magician, and the political developments of fifth-century Britain.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. First published:1876.
Fiction
The adventures and pranks of a mischievous boy growing up in a nineteenth-century Mississippi River town as he plays hookey on an island, witnesses a crime, hunts for pirate treasure, and becomes lost in a cave